{{short description|New Zealand writer and actor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Joseph Musaphia | birth_date = 1935 | birth_place = London United Kingdom | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = playwright }} '''Joseph Musaphia''' (born 1935) is a New Zealand writer and actor who was born in London.<ref name= 'playmarket'>{{cite news|title=Spotlight Joseph Musaphia|agency=Playmarket News|issue=113–9703970|publisher=Playmarket|date=1998}}</ref>
== Biography == Joseph Musaphia was born in 1935 in London and he has Portuguese ancestry.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=McDonnell|first=Gabe|date=30 August 2019|title=Joe Musaphia|url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/profile/joe-musaphia/biography|access-date=2020-08-14|website=NZ On Screen|language=en}}</ref> He moved with his family to Melbourne, Australia and lived there from 1938 until 1946 when they moved to Christchurch, New Zealand. He attended Christchurch Boys' High School and left age 15.<ref name=":0" /> He spent three years as an apprentice motor mechanic until he switched to art and cartooning, working in commercial art for ten years. Over a period of three years, while we was in his early twenties his cartoons were published weekly in ''The Listener'' magazine.<ref name="playmarket" /><ref name=":0" />
Musaphia started writing and acting for stage, screen and radio after his first play was produced by the New Zealand Theatre Company in 1961.<ref>{{Cite journal|editor-last=Brasch|editor-first=Charles|title=Free|journal=Landfall|volume=68|pages=348–369}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Harcourt|first=Peter|title=A Dramatic Appearance: New Zealand Theatre 1920 – 1970|publisher=Methuen|year=1978|location=Wellington, New Zealand}}</ref> He was inspired to write after attending the Unity Theatre production of ''Look Back In Anger'' by John Osborne.<ref name=":0" />
In 1971 Musaphia and Roger Hall won a Logie Award for best television comedy, ''Australia A – Z''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Roger Hall|url=http://www.nzonscreen.com/person/roger-hall/biography|website=NZ on Screen|access-date=21 April 2016}}</ref>
The play ''Mother and Fathers'' first presented in 1975 at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin also had presentations in at the Court Theatre and Downstage in Wellington. Musaphia acted in the early productions. It was so popular in Wellington it transferred to the much larger theatre the Opera House for three nights.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=March 1976|title=Mother and Fathers|journal=Act|volume=1}}</ref> In 1979 he received the first Victoria University of Wellington Writer's Fellowship.<ref>{{cite web|title=Writer in Residence|url=http://www.victoria.ac.nz/modernletters/about/residence|access-date=21 April 2016|website=International Institute of Modern Letters}}</ref>
Circa Theatre chose the Musaphia play ''Mates'' to celebrate their tenth year in 1986 and it was directed and starred Ray Henwood.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cooke|first=Pat|date=August 1986|title=Act Reviews – Mates|journal=Act|volume=11|issn=0110-0106}}</ref> Musaphia wrote his first novel in 1997, has been a columnist for ''The Evening Post'' in Wellington, and continues to write stage and radio plays.<ref>{{cite web|title=Joe Musaphia|url=http://www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/joe-musaphia|access-date=21 April 2016|website=Playmarket}}</ref>
==Stage Plays== * 1971 – ''The Guerilla'' * 1973 – ''Victims -'' premiered at Downstage 1973<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|date=1998|title=Spotlight Joseph Musaphia|journal=Playmarket News|publisher=Playmarket|volume=18|pages=13}}</ref> * 1974 – ''Obstacles -'' premiered at Downstage 1974<ref name= 'playmarket'/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Smythe|first=John|title=Downstage upfront : the first 40 years of New Zealand's longest-running professional theatre|date=2004|publisher=Victoria University Press|isbn=0-86473-489-1|location=Wellington, N.Z.|oclc=60386677}}</ref> * 1975 ''- Mother and Fathers -'' premiered at the Fortune Theatre,<ref name=":1" /> revised in 2005 * 1980 - ''Hunting -'' premiered at Circa Theatre<ref>{{Cite book|title=Circa 1976–1996|date=1996|publisher=The Council of Circa Theatre|others=Reid, John, 1949–, Jeffrey, Ruth., Council of Circa Theatre.|isbn=0-473-04155-3|location=Wellington [N.Z.]|oclc=37434951}}</ref> * 1983 - ''A Fair Go For Charlie Wellman''<ref name=":1" /> * 1983 - ''The Plague'' * 1986 - ''Mates -'' premiered at Circa Theatre * 1988 - ''The New Zealander -'' premiered at the Fortune Theatre * 2018 – ''Problems -'' premiered at Circa Theatre
== Radio Plays ==
* 1976 – ''Flotsam and Jetsum'' (NZBC) * 1976 – ''The Guerilla'' (NZBC) * 1976 – ''Never Let it Be Said'' (NZBC) * 1978 – ''Just Desserts'' (NZBC) * 1979 – ''Mind Jogging'' (NZBC) * 1985 – ''Mothers and Fathers'' (RNZ)
==Film and television==
* 2019 – ''Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy'', Subject – Television * 1986 – ''Between the Lines'', Writer – Television * 1983 – ''Comedy Playhouse'', Writer – Television * 1975 – 1976, ''Today at One'', Writer, Actor – Television * 1974 – 1975, ''Buck House'', Writer – Television * 1973, ''Richard John Seddon – Premier'', Actor – Television * 1971, ''Noel Ferrier's Australia A-Z'', Writer – Television * 1969 – 1970, ''In View of the Circumstances'', Actor, Writer – Television * 1967 – 1968, ''Joe's World'' – Presenter, Writer – Television * 1966 – ''Don’t Let It Get You'' – film <ref>{{cite web|title=Don't Let It Go|url=http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/dont-let-it-get-you-1966|access-date=21 April 2016|website=NZ on Screen}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Musaphia, Joe}} Category:1935 births Category:Living people Category:New Zealand male dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century New Zealand male writers Category:New Zealand people of Portuguese descent Category:Writers from London Category:English emigrants to New Zealand Category:People educated at Christchurch Boys' High School